Times Observer file photo In this Times Observer file photo from Sept. 3, 2019 Congressman Glenn Thompson is seen shaking hands with an Ellwood employee during a his visit at the forge last month. While he said the 15-vote marathon to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker had “unpleasant” elements, he believes that the “Republican conference is stronger for it.”

It had been 100 years since the election of a Speaker of the House required more than one vote.

That is, of course, until last week when it took 15 votes to get Rep. Kevin McCarthy across that line.

Congressman Glenn Thompson cast his vote for McCarthy each time.

And he metaphorically equated the whole saga to the process of making sausage.

“When I was growing up… there are families that make sausage,” Thompson told the Times Observer on Wednesday. “The sausage making process, some of it is not real pleasant but at the end of the day everyone enjoys the outcome.”

“That’s legislating,” he explained. “(You) bring people together that have diverse backgrounds and opinions. That’s what we witnessed last week. It was unpleasant certainly to go into the wee hours.”

Thompson added that there is “always underlying drama” in Congress. “That’s what you have when you have a committee of 435 to do such important work.

“I think at the end of the day, the Republican conference is stronger for it.”

Thompson’s basis for that statement is the rules package – the procedures outlining how the House will operate during the 118th Congress – approved earlier this week.

“The rules package, the primary focus and discussion, I was pleased with that,” Thompson said. “That was something that all of us put together.

“I think it will achieve the goal I had starting out – decentralize more of the power out of leadership back to the members and the committees.”

That’s doubly beneficial for Thompson as he’s been selected to lead the House Committee on Agriculture.

“I think it was also beneficial from a team dynamic,” Thompson explained. “Congress, every two years, is a completely different, new organization. We have new people coming in, people changing roles.”

“It takes weeks or months,” he said, for any organization to reach the level of a “high performing team. It takes time to learn the personalities.

“I think with the intensity of the speaker election, we pretty well accomplished that in five days.”

The end result, he argued, can be seen in the legislation passed this week “and we’re not done. I’m thankful where we’re at.”

He stands by the decision to support McCarthy as speaker.

“Kevin McCarthy has already shown signs of being a great Speaker,” Thompson, both in advancing legislation and “empowering us to lead with conservative effective solutions for the families of this country.”